A look at current trends and data

Citation

Nolan, S. (2010), "A look at current trends and data", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 9 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2010.37209dab.006

A look at current trends and data

Article Type: Research and results From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 9, Issue 4

Story 1

A global perspective on graduate recruitment

The first ever INGRADA (International Network of Graduate Recruitment and Development Associations) Global Graduate Recruitment Survey, “Global Perspectives on the Graduate Recruitment Market,” was launched in January 2010.

INGRADA is currently a partnership between graduate recruitment membership associations in six nations – Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, South Africa, the USA and the UK, with the latter represented by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR). The teams from each of these countries meet regularly to discuss issues facing college educators and graduate recruiters around the globe, and in 2009 came together to create the first global survey of graduate recruitment.

The report is based on the aggregated results of surveys and market knowledge from each country covering graduate starting salaries, offer acceptance rates, vacancy and application figures, retention rates and the costs associated with hiring graduates. The survey has highlighted the different challenges faced by graduate recruiters around the world. The political, economic and cultural environment in which organizations recruit and develop graduates is becoming increasingly global, and yet recruiters need to understand markets on a local level if they are going to operate effectively. The following are some of the findings from the report:

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  The report demonstrates the changing effect of the economic slowdown on salary changes, with Canada and South Africa seeing modest increases in graduate starting salaries while the USA and Australia saw a small decline. Starting salaries vary quite significantly, from around 115 k Rand (approximately £10k GBP) in South Africa up to an average of $60k USD (approximately £37k GBP) in Hong Kong.

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  Graduate retention also varies significantly with length of service. While the six countries all report similar retention rates of around 95 percent in the first year, the spread widens significantly after five years from around 75 percent in Hong Kong down to less than 60 percent in the UK, perhaps indicative of a culture in the UK that is a shade more relaxed about employees moving onwards and upwards.

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  While the number of vacancies has generally declined by around 20 to 25 percent in the last year (with South Africa being the notable exception, holding vacancy numbers level in 2009), the propensity of graduates to accept offers does vary, from as high as 94 percent in South Africa to around 74 percent in the USA.

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  The size of graduate schemes in the USA is unusually high, where companies recruit on average 108 graduates each, as opposed to 10 to 25 per employer for the rest of the participating nations. This may go some way to explaining the lower marketing costs incurred by American employers, who spend on average $475 USD (approximately £300 GBP) per candidate hired, against almost £2,200 GBP in the UK. This does seem to balance out a little when the whole cost of recruitment is accounted for, however, with fairly consistent figures reported by the countries that measure this.

What became apparent when the INGRADA partners were working together was that while graduate recruitment is increasingly becoming a more global, and therefore more streamlined, industry, there are still significant local differences that recruiters can learn a lot about from each other. The INGRADA website includes information supplied by each association describing the higher education structure and graduate recruitment model in their country – a useful resource for the increasing number of employers who need to recruit on a global scale.

This is the first time such a survey has been produced on a global basis and the intention is to provide an annual review in future.

For more information

Visit www.ingrada.org or www.agr.org.uk

Story 2

European HR leaders cautious

A study designed and carried out for the European Club for Human Resources (EChr) by Hewitt Associates, a global HR consulting and outsourcing company, revealed that HR leaders foresee a better but still challenging outlook for 2010. The study included HR directors and HR board members of 16 different nationalities at 70 organizations headquartered in Europe.

On the upside, the study showed that corporate growth plans are putting back more focus on selected human capital development measures, as well as the opportunity to measure and leverage HR’s value to the business more effectively. On the downside, however, concerns remain regarding productivity gaps, workforce adequacy and rigorousness in people management policy implementation.

Key findings of the study include the following:

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  While respondents have a more positive outlook for 2010 they still remain very cautious on the prospects of expansion. The proportion of companies foreseeing a reduction in their workforce remains high (44 percent) – but it is significantly less than in last year’s survey (71 percent). Meanwhile, companies that expect to add new jobs have increased from 8 percent in 2009, to 20 percent in 2010, with 37 percent expecting to maintain the same level of employment.

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  Although workforce reduction is still underway for approximately half of survey respondents, the identification and implementation of productivity improvements is at the top of the list of post-recession measures – chosen by 59 percent of respondents. The reinforced interest shown for opportunistic hiring of top talent (52 percent) and targeted leadership development (49 percent) gives a sense of the change of emphasis in business plans. These two measures now top the list of improvements with both having grown by 20 percent compared to last year’s results.

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  Pressure on cost reduction is confirmed as the most influential factor for the second consecutive year. Challenging profit targets, changes in the company culture and organization, and talent shortage also continue to be among the top drivers of HR policies. These are all signals of the reinforced consciousness of an HR function that needs to cope with a highly competitive and fast changing business environment in terms of market and of critical workforce capabilities.

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  The top three priorities on the HR agenda for the period 2010 to 2012 remain stable with an even greater emphasis on core human capital issues. They are leadership development (mentioned by 46 percent), employee engagement (39 percent) and talent retention (32 percent). As a fourth priority, the focus will be on improving the assessment of what HR does and how it adds value to the business. This is also the area where HR leaders seem to be most keen to have further support and fill their current gap in terms of delivery capacity.

For more information

Visit www.hewitt.com

Story 3

Resilience is key to job retention

A report from Accenture, Women Leaders and Resilience: Perspectives from the C-Suite, shows that corporate leaders around the world believe that resilience – the ability to overcome challenges and turn them into opportunities – is key to keeping your job. The report is the result of research carried out by Accenture of more than 500 senior executives of mid- to large-size companies in 20 countries in Europe, Asia, North America and Latin America to identify actions taken by senior executives to develop women for leadership roles and the value they give to resilience as a primary quality of leadership.

The following are some of the findings from the research:

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  More than two-thirds (71 percent) of corporate leaders report that resilience is very to extremely important in determining who to retain. While respondents are divided about whether men or women are more resilient (53 percent report women are very to extremely resilient; 51 percent report men as very to extremely resilient), 60 percent are providing women with career enhancing assignments, and 40 percent are preparing women for senior management roles.

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  Despite the economic downturn, many corporate professional development programs specific to women remain intact. Just under one half (48 percent) of all respondents reported making no changes in the past year to leadership programs for women, and 48 percent did not alter coaching and mentoring programs specific to women.

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  The survey asked respondents what actions their companies have taken to support women’s career development, and almost five in ten said they provide internal mentors or work-life balance programs (reported by 48 percent and 46 percent, respectively). Additionally, only 24 percent of respondents’ companies assign an advocate to women early in their careers and 37 percent provide women with external coaches.

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  Respondents associate resilience and adaptability most frequently with seniority; they said senior managers are most resilient, followed by middle managers and, last, by employees below manager (reported by 77 percent, 55 percent and 36 percent, respectively).

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  Respondents’ views about women’s resilience differed by region. For example, more respondents in North America and Europe said women adapt more easily to change than men. In Latin America and Asia-Pacific, respondents were more evenly divided.

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  Respondents’ views about women’s productivity also differed by region. More respondents in North America ranked female Baby Boomers first in productivity, compared to respondents in Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific who said women in Generation X are the most productive.

For more information

A full report on the research is available at www.accenture.com

Story 4

Hiring to go hand-in-hand with layoffs

Some 82 percent of European companies are planning to hire employees to new positions in 2010, according to a new survey by Towers Watson, a global professional services company. However, most of these companies expect hiring to remain at best sluggish – with 45 percent saying it will be below levels typical of past years.

Moreover, while most companies are hiring, 49 percent still expect to make workforce reductions in 2010 – 5 percent say these will be broad-based and 44 percent say they will be targeted. This compares with 12 percent who have made broad-based reductions and 55 percent who have made targeted reductions since the start of the financial crisis.

The Towers Watson survey, based on responses from 131 mostly large employers across Europe and 459 employers globally, found that while the picture is slowly improving, Europe lags behind North America. For example, 92 percent of US companies indicated they would be hiring in 2010 and only 37 percent expected workforce reductions.

Sara Nolan

For more information

The Towers Watson analysis can be found at www.towerswatson.com/research/960